How The Group Gave Badguys the Cold Shoulder (yessss)

With each passing day, the death toll slowly rises. Mayhem slowly tightens its vice grip on the formerly serene town of Rochon. News of a suspicious death reached the ears of our fair adventurers and curiosity carried them to the scene of a potential homicide. The probably charismatic bard to the noble found by the river. She was dead, but not slain. A canteen discovered by the newly promoted sheriff reeks of poison and more so of foul play. Who would assassinate an unassuming minstrel by the choked river?

The shadow of chaos was creeping like the mist of a hundred cauldrons. Another attack was surely due within hours. Thora’xx and Endrick take flight upon the mighty Glidewing to establish the rings of influence the hidden Beholders possess over the town. From their vantage point, the duo spot Wessen sulking beyond city limits. Through diplomatic reasoning (i.e fully enforceable threats made by the war dwarf), Wessen was coaxed back into town where he could be kept under supervision in the vaults of Town Hall.

Of course, the doors to Town Hall were locked tight. A locked door, the sworn enemy of our heroic motley crue, was to be breached by any means necessary. First means were by MANtis. Thora’xx Kitty Pride’d through the barrier and brought awe to the cowering mayor who physically desisted that Thora’xx not unburden the door. Thankfully, Mantis men have four arms; two for moving boxes and two for holding down frantic mayors. Sensing that this could take a while, the steampunk cyborg sidestepped the laws of physics and Kramer’d his way in. This did not sit well with the Mayor. With a stoic hoofstomp and a whimsical whinny, the Dwarf hero materialized within the living room sized hall. The Mayor thought to himself “Either I am tripping more than a slinky in an M.C Escher painting, or I am losing my Gods damned mind”. Once the door finally swung opened, the ghastly silhouette of Aldrick’s addax horns was enough to lower Mayor’s HP to zero, causing him to faint.

Once inside, the group found a vault for Wessen’s containment. A guard was instructed to give Wessen a sleep potion just as the sun dims and to keep the outside of the vault locked. With at least one werewolf kept in check, haste was made to the Iced Mines.

The only thing more offensive than a locked door is an obstructed entrance. The entrance to the mine was corked with the last drippings of Mr. Freeze’s ice gun, but was no match for a stick of dynamite and a god damn war hero.

Though Yip’s disguise was thorough, the Ice Gargoyles guarding a massive door were in no mood to speak. If they did, they would probably say something about not merely walking through the door. Though very handsy, the defenders were clawing above their weightclass and were left ice cubes.

The next room reveled a key waiting for someone to just pick it up. Little to the knowledge of the quintet, Frosty Owlbears are notoriously obsessed with guarding keys. Thus, a beat down was initiated. A swing of a scimitar, slice of a dazzling dagger, and a damning smash of a dwarven war hammer was enough to silence the beast. Only an frozen door stands between the adventurers and final boss.

A Beholder of Frost levitates, affixing its numerous (three) eyes upon the battlesmiths. I have feasted on many things before, the Beholder thought, but never have I tasted Mantis! Nor robot. How Am I supposed to digest that? While entertaining these thoughts, an unholy straight up smack down was fast tracking the beast to its demise. Through aggressive tact, the Beholder met the smite and might of a perturbed Mantis Man (last hit lols).

Behind every great monster is an even greater stash of loot. In this instance, the loot was a gotdamn Giant Mimic. Though it thought it were bad, it was up against real O.G, real thugginz, the real mofos with real grit. Naturally, the busta eats it like its closing time at the curbstomp buffet. Among the treasure the Mimic left behind was a Time Crystal Fragment. Nameless carefully tries to stash the Fragment into his pouch, but once it leaves his ethereal Mage’s Hand and touches his pocket, he is suspended in time for six seconds.

With the Beholder banished, it’s cold doomgrip is lifted and order is restored to this region of Rochon. Finally, order may begin to combat the chaos that has marched across the quiet town. But the group are not cats. They cannot bask in the light nor of comfort despite their accomplishment. Lo, night cloaks Rochon in danger. A shriek bellows from the once peaceful town. Before pursuit can be made, everyone is enveloped in light and deposited three days into the past. Though one Beholder and its effects are gone, numerous threats are still very present.

Just passing through

Prologue
After some weird things happened with time fluctuating, Hamund contacted the group about solving this issue. He mentions these time oddities started happening after they returned from their future fight with Zenobaal. His research points towards a nearby town outside of the Mournland called Rochon. There, they might find some strange things or some type of manifestation that can help them solve this issue.

Arriving at Town
After a few days of travel, the adventurers reached the town of Rochon and were greeted by a friendly guard named Waegmund. They lied and said they were traveling merchants and Waegmund let them in. After talking to the Mayor, Albert Rhubert, and his scribe, Ancin Vaughy, they realized nothing odd was going on in this town. The group split up to look for more information about the town.

Endrik headed to the Inn and got the group rooms before talking to the people there. He found out that no one in town likes the sheriff, Dene, because of his sadistic attitude and frequent drinking. He also learned of a visiting noble in town who was staying in the guest manor. Not much else seemed to be of interest and so Endrik made his way to the marketplace with the rest of the town.

Yip and Alarick headed to the main shop but found it was closed so the owner, Lesym Bailey, could help set up the marketplace. There, they saw Dene and tried to talk to him, but he was still drunk and very rude. He threatened to imprison them if they bothered him again, but Waegmund came over and took them away, warning them not to talk to him. He would provide any assistance they needed. Alarick bought a recipe for healing potions from Aeheard, the alchemist. Then, Endrik, Yip, and Alarick browsed the area until calling it a night and heading back to the Inn.

Thora’xx made his way to Cyna, the blacksmith, and discovered she could improve his chatchkas and fix his broken one, but it might take a few days or more. On his way to the church, he saw Cyna’s apprentice, Scytio, and asked him if he could help out with his chatchkas. Scytio, though a little freaked out and intimidated by Thora’xx’s appearance, agreed. Thora’xx then made his way to the church where he met Maly Hancey, a priestess of the Sovereign Host, who was blessing the fields. After discussing the practices of the Sovereign Host, Thora’xx received a blessing from Maly before making his way to the graveyard.

Nameless went to the library and researched the town’s history. He discovered this town was built by a group of adventurers and refugees many generations ago. They call this town the town of second chances because it gave everyone a chance to start their lives over. They made their initial wealth from a nearby mine where many jewels and minerals were found, but the mine has been long since cleaned out. Now the town focuses on providing services and goods for travelers and merchants, as well as farming to provide food for nearby villages. After researching, Nameless made his way to the graveyard.

At the graveyard, Thora’xx and Nameless saw many graves for the different people Nameless had read about. While at the graveyard, they saw Scytio make his way to the nearby well several times to bring water back to Cyna. At first they thought the placement of the well was odd, but Nameless saw that the well was for the part of town that could get water easily from the river. All the pipes were away from the graveyard. The two then went to the Inn for the night.

At the Inn, Dene was getting very drunk and Thora’xx helped him to the brothel where many fun times were had. Not much was remembered from their time at the brothel, but they did see Maly Hancey at the graveyard reciting rites over the graves.

Werewolf Attack
The town was woken up by alarming bells coming from Town Hall. When everyone arrived, they saw an injured Waegmund and noticed Maly Hancey was missing. Albert Rhubert informed them that a werewolf had attacked in the night and killed Maly Hancey. Waegmund tried to slay the beast but was bit in the process. The werewolf was last seen running towards the cave high up in the mountains. The town banded together to increase the security of the town and the adventurers volunteered to hunt down the beast. Bedre, the visiting noble, promised to return with an army to help the town and left later that day. Cyna silvered everyone’s weapons. Aeheard would look into curing Waegmund of the werewolf curse.

While formulating a plan and learning the information they needed to get to the cave in the mountains, Lesym Bailey came to the Mayor very alarmed. He had been robbed of everything not made of silver during the night and there was no trace of any thieves. Albert promised to help him with his investigation after they made it through the night.

After a day filled with preparation, the group headed toward the cave. The trip took most of the night, but they finally arrived to the cave, only to find something they weren’t expecting inside.

The Time Crystal
The group saw a large, red crystal that was being drained by a powerful wizard. They realized this was a time crystal and most likely the reason they were here originally. The wizard Acererak had absorbed time energy from this crystal and used it to his advantage to blink in and out of time, attacking multiple times in a turn. But each time he did, the crystal cracked more and more. When he was weakened, Acererak forcibly took more energy from the crystal, causes it to shatter. The light from the crystal was blinding and knocked everyone unconscious.

Deja Vu
When they awoke, they found themselves back in the Inn. Although it seemed like morning, it was completely dark outside. After asking around the Inn, they found out there was no werewolf attack and they had only arrived the day before, even though they remember arriving in this town about three days ago. The town was just like it was when they arrived, only with three big differences. The northeastern section of town was plague with an eerie darkness and chill. The southern part of town was arid and dried out like a desert. The river was completely dried up and the crops were destroyed. To the west, ten feet of snow buried the parts of town where most of the town lived.

Things weren’t right in the town of second chances. Something changed when that crystal broke and so many questions were raised. What will happen next?